Always great sound. First was introduced to FMA at Lyric HiFi in NYC in 1978, when I was a university freshman. Since then I have remained a fan. I still have an FMA phono and 2 preamps. So glad to see Manuel going strong.
Göbel can generally be relied on to produce an excellent sounding system and this year was no exception. Building that system around the Wadax Studio Player was obviously a smart move, but this was the first time that I’ve heard the riviera pre and power amps living up to their reputation. In the past I’ve too often found them warm, wooly and lacking rhythmic grip and musical momentum. No such issues here, with clean, quick and wide-open sound that majored on relaxed, unforced clarity and transparency. The presentation was right on it, with excellent articulation, pitch and spatial definition. If you really wanted to hear into the recording, this was the place to do it. Once again, the Studio Player was paired with the Reiki Super Switch, providing a genuinely low-noise feed on streamed material, while CD and SACD replay were excellent. Arguably a more technically correct presentation than a system like the Magico or Rockport ones described below, systems that majored on the ‘why’ that drove the musical performance, this left you in no doubt as to the ‘what’ as well as the ‘how’.
Hi,
What Roy Gregory failed to mention in his praise of the Gobel / Wadax / Riviera.
Is Tripoint Audio installed their new Emperor Filters on the Speakers(2)
Amp(2)Preamp(4)Digital(1) Nine Total (9)
Maybe that is why Gregory went from never liking the sound of the
Riviera amps to saying they never sounded so good.
And then proceeding to say the sound was better than the creation of sliced bread.
And threw every praise he could think of about the sound of the room.
Interesting isn't it.
Give Tripoint Audio some credit ,I mean they deserve it.
Hi,
What Roy Gregory failed to mention in his praise of the Gobel / Wadax / Riviera.
Is Tripoint Audio installed their new Emperor Filters on the Speakers(2)
Amp(2)Preamp(4)Digital(1) Nine Total (9)
Maybe that is why Gregory went from never liking the sound of the
Riviera amps to saying they never sounded so good.
And then proceeding to say the sound was better than the creation of sliced bread.
And threw every praise he could think of about the sound of the room.
Interesting isn't it.
Give Tripoint Audio some credit ,I mean they deserve it.
Great to let the dust settle and have a look through the widely varied opinion on the various systems presented at Munich this year. For what it’s worth I thought the general standard was high. Lots of good sound.
Key takeaways - bigger is not altogether better. There were some huge systems that played beautifully, a treat to experience. Crazy resolution, scale and dynamics. YG at Motorworld, the WE horns & the gigantic Clarisys panels to name a few. That said, unless your desire is to reproduce an amplified stadium every time you listen (in your barn or auditorium), not really applicable nor desirable in a domestic setting.
A switch from digital to analogue in all cases delivered preferable sound, despite digital by and large sounding very good.
A couple of notable rooms that I’ve not noticed much mention of in the thread.
Firstly Wilson Benesch & Karan Acoustics. Finally an amplifier able to wake up the big Omniums! Very disappointing in previous implementations, here, on the back of the big WB turntable system an oasis of real beauty.
Sigma Audio & CanEVER tucked away in a booth in one of the halls produced remarkable sound, really floated my boat.
Finally Soundsmith, the new Highend MC cart sounded lovely in a modest system that put the coherence of many much bigger setups to shame!
My 2c
That’s also the first time I heard WB speakers sounded that good, never before with different electronics and sources. I don’t think it’s because of the music as they tend to use the same list of tracks to demo, but very potentially because of the Karan amps doing their magic.
I totally missed that massive YG room in the Motorworld, had not even noticed its existence until the show finished haha, but no worries at all.
I also agree that for the biggest systems, they tend to showcase what manufacturers can do instead of using these particular products in a domestic environment as the speakers are too large and require a massive hall for them; which in turns make a huge artificial presentation of human voices or instruments.
They’re super when recreating orchestral performance but that only represents one type of music.
Small and medium speakers/systems are amazing this year as they were well setup. Bass is just unbelievable when electronics and rock music were played, I did think some big boxes were there when walking by these rooms until opened the door and got inside.
I was told that the rooms in Vienna are much more challenging than Munich. Having not been there, I can’t comment but hopefully next year we’ll be able to listen to many great systems too.
I thought the Big YG s sounded good , seems like a well balanced design .
Apart from the usual audiophile music , id have liked to have heard some large orchestral work being played .
I heard only 3 songs , gotta move on with a big show like that .
I did stay an hour at Touraj Moghaddams room at Motorworld , because im interested in owning FM amps in the near future .
But between sounding good and being able to convincingly portray the musical message is a whole world of difference .
If i compare the multi million Wilson / Dagostino - YG AVM Siltech displays they fail in portaying the musical truth compared to what you can buy at FMA ( complete music system ).
If i would spend that kind of money the choice is very very easy
Audio Reference of Hamburg, in collaboration with many of its distributed brands, set up a mind-blowing system at Munich High End, valued at well over $3 million. At its heart were Wilson Audio’s WAMM Master Chronosonic loudspeakers ($685,000/pair)—Dave Wilson’s final design—and a massive Wilson...
www.stereophile.com
So here is a huge dichotomy. RG said this system was not great and here we have another reviewer from the MSM saying exactly the opposite. Same system same room same show.
So for the person that had an issue with my previous post here you go....
To me, not good. I had been looking forward to comparing some different horn systems, with Cessaro one of the renowned brands. Some horns really sounded very good such as Acapella, hORNS Uniwersum Ref, Aries Cerat, the Silbatone old WE horns. Cessaro just (too) loud to me in that room, not a balanced sound. It was such that I wanted to leave, but still I stayed for another song to see whether it was the music or not. It wasn't.